Cave Canyon Fire

201284,831 acresIdaho

The Cave Canyon Fire burned 84,831 acres, about 133 square miles, across Cassia County. It began on August 5, 2012.

Watch how it happened

Cave Canyon Fire · 2012

How it happened

Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.

About this replay
Date (UTC)—Historical replay
Burned so far—acres
High severity—of the area so far
Detections1,848satellite fire pixels

How severely it burned

Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.

Map of burn severity across the Cave Canyon Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered14%11,462
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive46%39,026
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive25%21,196
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change3.3%2,775
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%87
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images12%10,285

14% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 11,462 acres; 60% burned at moderate or high severity.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Forest Service). Classes come from the change in a Landsat burn index (dNBR) between images before and after the fire; acres are each class’s share of the fire’s mapped area.

Where it burned

Acres inside each county, measured from the satellite-mapped perimeter.

Acres burned by county
Cassia CountyID84,780

Other large fires in Idaho in 2012

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.